This trope is, well... a dance that a character does when they're happy. Maybe it's time to celebrate. Maybe it's time to make themselves feel better. Maybe their excitement just overflows into action. Maybe they just want to pat themselves on the back. Whatever the reason may be, they quickly bust a couple of moves. The Happy Dance! Also known as a victory dance.

May even be a signature moment for the character (for example, this picture may seem awfully familiar). See also Victory Pose.

One Piece's Chopper has a trademark happy dance which he burst into every time someone gives him a compliment. He tries to act like he doesn't want their praise, and calls them assholes while wiggling his hips and grinning ear-to-ear.

Digimon V-Tamer 01 sees Yagami Taichi and Zeromaru do this pretty often. When a new monster shows up that no one recognizes, it is instantly identified as Zero the moment it and Taichi do their usual routine.

Koskov's Narm-inducing dance in a fabulous sunhat and bathrobe in The Living Daylights once he learns that he's successfully manipulated the British government into using 007 to kill his rival.

George C Scott as Scrooge does a happy dance in A Christmas Carol (1984) after he realises that he still has time to change his course of life. Characteristically, Scott's intensity of portrayal helps to make the scene heartwarming.

The Party has an entire group of people do this when the Russian ballet troupe arrives, though Peter Sellers' character (who has just saved a girl from her creepy Hollywood agent) exhibits the most excellent example.

In Tangled, Rapunzel starts dancing in the city once her hair is braided, and draws people into the Dance Line.

If You Believe: Susan Stone is an editor. She performs a Happy Dance when she phones Dilly, her biggest star among her writers. She learns that he finally overcame his Writer's Block. That's quite a reason to celebrate, right?

In The Last Boy Scout, Joe Hallenbeck tells Jimmy Dix that if he survives their adventure, "I'm gonna dance a jig." After he defeats The Dragon, that's exactly what he does.

An unlucky man just had his right arm amputated, and this upsets him. He is thinking he'll not do without and never have a good life again. Right as he leaves the hospital, he sees another man who is missing both arms, but still dances happily around as if he's never felt better. The first man wants to find out why the other man is so overjoyed despite his lack of arms, so he asks him what makes him so happy that he is dancing. The other man replies angrily: "I'm not dancing! My ass is itching, and I can't scratch it!".

Literature

It's mentioned at the end of Isard's Revenge that Wedge was so happy to find that Wes Janson hadn't died at around the book's midpoint that he performed an "Ewok dance of joy".

Turk has many of these (including the "you are so getting a piece of this" dance, the "there's a sale on lotion" dance and the "I'm gonna cut you open" dance). At one point, JD is shown to have a Happy Dance coach.

Elliot has, on two occassions, displayed her "I Told You So" dance.

Two and a Half Men: Five, Six, Seven, Eight! No more alimony! No more alimony! No more alimony! No more alimony!

At the end of "Disharmony", Wesley makes a speech about how time and space are the only things that can fix the recent rifts in Team Angel...only for Cordelia to come bounding in, squeeing over the new clothes Angel bought her. It gets funnier when Angel joins in.

Maury: If the titular host ever reads "You are NOT the father!" on a paternity test, there's a chance the tested man will break out into one of these. The show has become infamous for these sorts of over-the-top displays after the results of a paternity test are read.

Chandler Bing from Friends has one after they had a heart-to-heart talk with Monica, reassuring each other that they feel serious about their secret relationship. When Monica leaves, she senses that he's doing it and she says without looking back: "Don't do the dance."

Spaced has a standard Happy Dance routine that crops up a few times to the exact same tune — walk jauntily down the street, click heels, head a football that flies out of nowhere, hug bewildered stranger. Tim does it, later in the episode Brian tries but manages to mess up every step. In a later episode, Tim and Bilbo do it side by side.

Ba Wool from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop does a happy dance after he gets a kiss on the cheek from Soo Yi. Eun Bi smacks him around the head for being stupid.

On Sherlock, Sherlock does one of these — literally leaping into the air, whirling about the room, shouting "It's Christmas!" and kissing Mrs Hudson — when he's called in to investigate a fourth mysterious serial suicide.

In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, it's revealed that Marshall does happy dances so often that he got "dancer's hip", an injury common among ballerinas.

On Saturday Night Live's Church Lady sketches by Dana Carvey, the character would go into a strutting "Superior Dance" whenever she thinks she has proven her superiority over anybody.

Squacky from The Pajanimals is known for breaking into one and one of the show's songs is all about happy dances.

Family Feud: Steve Harvey sometimes does this whenever a contestant's family-unfriendly answer isn't on the board.

Lindsey Stirling sings about how "We're in Europe! We're here in Europe right now, gonna be awesome, so excited!" whilst doing some kind of dance across the screen and back again.

During Duke Ellington's 1956 performance at Newport, the 15-minute rendition of "Dimenuendo and Crescendo in Blue" slowly started getting the crowd riled up during Paul Gonsalves's legendary 27-chorus tenor sax solo, after an inauspicious beginning to the program. When a platinum blonde in one row spontaneously jumped to her feet and started one of these, the audience exploded, and pandemonium ensued in one of the most awesome single moments in the history of jazz.

Newspaper Comics

The current page image is Snoopy's iconic Happy Dance from Peanuts. One time, Charlie Brown celebrates getting the better of the dog with a mocking happy dance of his own.

Dilbert: Dilbert and Wally have done "victory dances" at work, incorporating such moves as Russian-dancing kicks and "turbo mooning".

Garfield: Garfield does the Happy Dance occasionally, like when he hears the automatic can opener.

Professional Wrestling

Carlos Colon prior to the figure four leg lock, a trait that would be passed down to Carly, Stacy and Eddie, as well as imitated by his nemesis, Ray González.

Victoria was a dancing ho during her time with the Godfather and a dancing ex ho for sometime afterwards before her gimmick became being Ax-Crazy. Then she went back to dancing around the same time Lance Storm was doing his "happy dance" gimmick.

The Human Tornado, being a walking throwback to the 1970s, is known for his funky break dancing, and he'll happily stomp a mud hole in you and your friends all at once while getting loose.

Ryusuke Taguchi, after he took up his "Funky Weapon" gimmick to taunt his opponents.

Black Rose, making use of her professional dancing experience and leading to a rivalry with fellow dancer Barbie Boy in the International Wrestling Association. Noemi Bosques later became her dancer partner.

The Osirian Portal, who are so funky you'll have to dance along with them. And if you don't, you'll end up doing so anyway via Mass Hypnosis.

Pretty Bitchin, the team of "Portuguese Princess" Ariel and Nikki "La Gringa" Roxx tended to breakout in dance before matches and after victories, often inviting fans to join them.

A Hollow Man in Fable II yearned to have one of these but got instead the "Hollow Dance of Ur'Cyrandorandorander". Even he can't pronounce it right.

Some Final Fantasy games had this upon winning a battle, especially the older ones.

Whenever your captain in Spore: Galactic Adventures completes an adventure succesfully, this is what he'll do. He sometimes even moonwalks. As anyone can create an adventure, this has been lampshaded more than once in adventures that have been made.

Dragon Age: Origins: One of Ogh ren's random battle quotes at the end of a successful battle. (He doesn't actually dance though.)

Raz of Psychonauts has one in which he "walks like an Egyptian" while bobbing his head all the while singing a little tune. He got it off a bully, with the first time he does the dance being when he knocks said bully off grind rails.

In Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy the titular heroes do an elaborate victory dance after they've defeated the Big Bad. Daxter will do various dances (including the robot, pirouettes and a butt-waggle) after they've collected a powercell.

In Jak II: Renegade Daxter starts to do one after they've completed their first mission, but is interrupted when the place crumbles.

At the end of Jak 3: Wastelander Daxter does another one when he finds out that he's a Precursor.

It features the Minions, whose job it is to dance like this for the player if they can land more than 2 kills at once or very close together. They happen to be Super-DeformedPlayStation characters, tied to someone on the roster.

Left in the Idle Animation long enough, Jak and Daxter will perform the dance seen at the end of the first Jak and Daxter, mentioned above.

In Pokemon Xand Y, numerous Pokemon will do a brief one as an idle animation and/or happy animation in Pokemon Amie. It's not just the cute ones, either, as Garchomp and Hydreigon among others will demonstrate (But especially Hydreigon).

The captain's Happy Dance in Schlock Mercenary was so prevalent, that when he is gone for a while, the team correctly points out when he would have been doing the dance.

Dominic Deegan: Grenchka learns from Dominic that the "Butcher", the bogeyman of the orcs, is dead, and asks him to cover his eyes so she can sing "Iakka takka" (happy dance) and do a little jig. The reason she asks him to cover his eyes is because said butcher was the father of Siegfried, one of his acquaintances, and while he does so, he gripes, "I can still hear you."

Both John and Hank Green of the VlogBrothers have their own happy dances. They are generally performed when good things happen, as is to be expected.

The online community Nerdfighters has a signature happy dance, actually called, "the happy dance." See it here.

Doctor Steel jauntily dances at the end of Episode 1 of The Dr. Steel Show. There is also a section on his website where you can make him do several dance moves to some old-timey music. In Caleb Allen's Fan Vid of "Lament for a Toy Factory", the actor playing Dr. Steel breaks into these dance moves as the helicopter spotlight hits him - and the music from the website begins to play.

The Nostalgia Chick does this too after she decides she enjoys doing movies other than girly ones, and hers is the "frolicking in a field" variety.

Dragon Ball Z Abridged's Captain Ginyu not only has the Dance of Joy, under orders from King Cold to perform every successful mission, but also the Daddy's Little Princess Dance, under Cooler's orders, the Dance of Cheering You Up for when Frieza's attempt to use the Dragon Balls fails, and finally, the Dance of Solitude!

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: Jane is doing a happy dance — mainly waving her arms — when she tells her viewers that she's got a reply from a prospective employer, Grace Poole. See it here.

Discord does one complete with cheering and chanting when he learns Twilight Sparkle is willing to stick her neck out for him, actually proving that their friendship is genuine, if not a little caustic.

Spongebob Squarepants: When Spongebob's pineapple house was eaten by nematodes he has to move back with his parents. Squidward was dancing happily on the ground where his house use to be, but it grew back on when Spongebob planted it and landed on Squidy.

Real Life

Rabbits do a happy dance called a binky. They jump into the air, and kick out their legs while in the air, with or without a butt waggle.

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